


Uptown Girl

by Drizzt_Do_Urden



Category: Deltora Quest - Emily Rodda
Genre: AU, AU-Canon divergence, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2020-02-16 20:17:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18698440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drizzt_Do_Urden/pseuds/Drizzt_Do_Urden
Summary: AU where Jasmine was raised as the daughter of King Endon and Queen Sharn. But...oddly enough, on Endon's coronation, the Belt did not shine for him. Nor did it for her, when she put it on shortly thereafter, after Endon's death. To find out why, she enlists the help of a cocky street kid, Lief. (Yes, I have read all the way to the end).





	1. Escape from the Palace, Into the Slums

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brave Princess Jasmine puts the Belt of Deltora on after her father King Endon's death, only to be stopped by Prandine.

          Proper protocol dictated that Jasmine wait until the coronation and let Prandine, chief adviser to the throne, place the Belt of Deltora around her waist, but there was no time for that. Besides, these days, she wouldn't trust Prandine farther than she could throw him. 

          It had all started with her grandfather King Alton's death. That, in and of itself, had surprised nobody, since Alton was a sickly old man who never left his bedchamber. What _was_ surprising was the Belt's subsequent failure to shine for Jasmine's father, King Endon, on his coronation day only three weeks ago. On Alton's coronation, it had blinded all the onlookers in a single flash of bright light, as if the entire crowd had stared directly into the sun, or so claimed its elderly witnesses and the descendants of those witnesses. 

         Prandine had claimed otherwise.

         "Reports of the Belt's luminescence were highly exaggerated, Your Majesty," Prandine had claimed nervously when the Belt had not so much as sparkled for Endon. "It was...a sunny day when Alton became king, it must have been the sun reflected off the gems' steel medallions..." 

        Endon had not believed this for a second. Although he politely agreed with Prandine's explanation, in secret he combed the royal library for an explanation. And two weeks later, in a little blue book titled _The Belt of Deltora_ , he'd found it. 

        "Prandine was wrong," Endon had confessed to her, one night, as he stood in the doorway of her bedchamber, holding the little blue book under his arm. "So. very. _wrong_." 

        "About one thing in particular or everything in general?" Jasmine asked, as she undid the complicated array of braids that formed her upswept bun.

          Even before her father's death, she hadn't liked the chief adviser one bit; Prandine was a man obsessed with controlling her every move. He was like that for _all_ the members of the Deltoran royal family, of course-it was practically part of the chief adviser's job to be, along with doing all of the actual governing of Deltora. But it was fiercest with Jasmine, because she questioned, openly and publicly, why the Rule- the bundle of rules and customs that governed the lives of the royal family- was the way it was. And the more she prodded, the more the Rule fell apart like layers of a delicate pastry.

           "The latter," Endon told her. "So, very much, the _latter_."

           A small smile made its way across Jasmine's lips. 

           "So will you be sending away that Toran nitwit Prandine picked to be my husband?" she asked. 

            Technically, Jasmine was not supposed to so much as _speak_ with her husband-to-be until the wedding day, as per the Rule. Unfortunately, thanks to Jasmine's habit of actually speaking to the nobles and their children-another violation of the Rule-she'd already met Marius prior to Prandine's selecting him as her groom, and was fully aware of what kind of person he was. And it was not a good one. 

          Endon nodded. 

          "Yes. But this is _bigger_ than him, Jasmine. This is bigger than all of us. We-we've been going slack in our duty to wear the Belt for far too long."

          Jasmine raised an eyebrow.

          "But...the Belt is worn every a new king or queen is crowned." 

           "And that's the result of a manipulation by the chief advisers going back all the way to King Elstred- the hero Adin's grandson. According to this book," 

            Endon held up the little blue book so Jasmine could see,

            "He was the first to stop wearing it, when his chief adviser told him he only needed to wear it on special occasions. And that started a chain reaction where the monarchs of Deltora wore it less and less, until at last the tradition became that the Belt was only worn when the heir took the throne."

           Jasmine's eyes widened.

           "Is that why it didn't shine?" she asked. "Because the Belt is punishing us for our negligence?" 

           Endon shook his head. 

           "I don't know why it didn't shine for me," he said. "But I do know that it shine, very brightly, for Adin, when he first put on the completed Belt. The book says it 'flashed like the sun'."

           "Like the sun..." Jasmine mused, halfway through undoing the many plaits in her dark hair. "So... _not_ the sun's reflection off the steel medallions, then?" 

            "No," he growled. "Absolutely not.The book explicitly says that each of the seven gems in the steel medallions has its own special magic, and that together they make up a spell far greater than any of them on their own. And only the Belt, as first fashioned by Adin and worn by his true heir, has the power to defeat the Shadow Lord."

            Jasmine stared at Endon, wondering if he was perhaps suffering from sleep deprivation. He had spent almost the entirety of his two-week reign in that library, after all, and nobody had been able to coax him out of it. 

           "The Shadow Lord?" she asked, incredulous. "The ancient enemy that Adin, the founder of our line, defeated over a _thousand years ago_? Father, where did you find this book?" 

           "It was hidden," Endon replied, " _Very carefully_ away, almost as if somebody didn't want it to be found." 

            "Ah. Okay." 

            That made it more plausible. At least he hadn't found it among a pile of children's stories.

            "And, also according to the book, a thousand years are but a blink of an eye to the Shadow Lord. He is, truly, an immortal creature, and the only thing that can protect Deltora from it is wearing the Belt constantly, and never letting it out of your sight." 

            Jasmine finished undoing the last braid and let the lock of hair join the rest of her dark curls.

            "So...according to this book," she gasped. "Prandine isn't just a scheming, controlling bastard. He's one in a long line of scheming, controlling bastards. And it's hurt the realm immensely." 

            "And I'm going to put a stop to it," Endon declared. "As of this night, I declare the Rule null and void. And tommorrow, I'm going to go up to the tower where the Belt is housed and put it on." 

             That was not to be, however. For the very next morning, Endon would find himself struck with a terrible sickness. A sickness, which, according to what Jasmine had read about plant lore, was eerily similar to the symptoms of poisoning via death cap mushrooms. And who in all of the palace was the only one with the motive to poison the king? Prandine, the chief adviser. After all, Endon had found a book detailing the many crimes of the chief advisers over the centuries, and Prandine wouldn't want a little thing like that forcing him to give up control. 

           So thus the next week was spent desperately using her knowledge of plant lore to try and save her father. But she'd failed, and now Deltora's only hope rested in Jasmine ascending the stairs in front of her, putting the Belt on, and executing Prandine for treason. 

          Eventually, Jasmine got to the door at the top of the tower, opened it, and walked into the room. The Belt rested in a glass case in the very center, beautiful and resplendent. Jasmine stared it at in awe as she opened the glass case. 

         At the far end of the Belt was the diamond, the talisman of the Jalis tribe,symbol of strength and purity, giver of courage and strength, protector from pestilence, and aid to the cause of true love. Which would have been useful in getting rid of Marius. Apparently it also brought misfortune to those who took it by force. 

          To the diamond's right was the emerald, talisman of the Dread Gnomes, symbol of honor, and which dulled in the presence of evil or a broken vow. Supposedly it was a remedy for sores and ulcers, and an antidote to poison. Which also would have been useful in saving her father.

        To the emerald's right was the lapis lazuli, the heavenly stone, talisman of the Mere tribe and symbol of Fortune. It brought good fortune to and protected the wearer from evil.

        To the right of the lapis lazuli was the topaz, the talisman of the Del tribe, and symbol of faithfulness. It protected its wearer from the terrors of the night, gave the wearer contact with the spirit world, and strengthened and cleared the mind. Supposedly its powers were strongest during the full moon. 

        To the topaz's right was the opal, the talisman of the Plains people, symbol of hope. Supposedly it aided those with weak vision and allowed one to see into the future. And apparently had a bond with the lapis lazuli. 

       To the opal's right was the ruby, talisman of the Ralad tribe, symbol of happiness, which also paled in the face of evil, and when misfortune threatened the wearer. It apparently also warded off evil spirits, and was an antidote to snake venom. 

      Lastly, to the ruby's right, there was the amethyst, the talisman of the people of Tora, symbol of Truth. It changed color, supposedly, in the face of illness,paled near poisoned food and drink, and guided the wearer towards security, sincerity, and peace of mind. 

        _All that power_ , Jasmine thought, as she picked up the Belt reverently. Going to waste inside a glass box. How could anyone think that was a good idea? 

       Jasmine fastened it around her waist, and.... Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just like with her father, the Belt did not so much as sparkle. It most certainly did not "flash like the sun", or emit any other glorious blazes of light. 

       It remained little more than a very beautiful piece of jewelry. 

      Before Jasmine could take Endon's little blue book from the folds of her dress and consult it, she heard Prandine say behind her, 

       "I thought you might try something like this, Your Highness. Unfortunately, as you can plainly see, it's not going to work."

       Jasmine whirled around, and turned to face Prandine, who held a very evil-looking dagger in his hand and had an even more evil grin on his face. 

       "Shine or no shine," Jasmine said loftily, trying to hide the fear and nervousness inside her. "I'm still the queen, and so you'd better sheathe that knife before I call the guards and have them arrest you for high treason." 

        Prandine laughed. 

        "You honestly think that arresting me will solve all of your problems. That I'm the sole schemer in this plot?" 

 

        "Father made me _fully aware_ of the long line of treacherous chief advisers before his tragic death," Jasmine snapped. "But I can't punish them for ruining Deltora because _they're dead_. You, on the other hand...I am going to tear you limb from limb." 

       Prandine shrugged. 

        "I predicted as much," he said. "You're notoriously hard to control. At least _Endon_ married his designated baby breeder without a fuss. But you-you kick and cry and scream at the mere thought of accepting Marius as a husband." 

        "He's an _idiot_ ," Jasmine pointed out, glaring at Prandine, whom, she observed, had lowered the knife. "An idiot who makes passes at every servant girl who comes his way, whether said servant girl welcomes them or not."

        "And the very fact that you know that, you insolent little bitch," Prandine hissed. "Is because you _deliberately_ flouted the Rule, and commingled with the commoners and nobles when you should have been staying put in your section of the palace." 

       "The Rule," Jasmine snapped. "Is nothing more than a bunch of lies created by chief advisers like you over the centuries to keep the Belt _out_ of our hands and to give you power you clearly don't deserve."

       Prandine laughed. 

       "Endon's precious book told you that, did it? See what I mean? You take whatever little excuse to rebel you can, and run with it." 

       "Well, you shouldn't have made a Rule _entirely_ out of said excuses, then," Jasmine retorted, filled with rage.

       "I digress," Prandine said, dropping the knife. "At any rate, knowing what you'd be like upon your father's death, I...made precautions." 

      Jasmine glanced at the knife, which was now on the floor. 

      "A precaution which you just threw away." 

      Prandine chuckled. 

     "Oh, that? That was just for show. The real precautions were put in your breakfast this morning." 

      Jasmines's eyes widened as a horrible burning sensation filled through her throat. 

      "No," Jasmine retched, horrified. "You...poisoned me!" 

      Prandine smirked. 

      "Correct, Your Highness." 

       "You-!"

       Jasmine threw up on the ground. 

      "You realize _I'm_ the last of Adin's bloodline now!" she pointed out, feeling more burning inside her throat. "Without me, there won't be any more kings or _queens_! How will-" 

     A wide grin spread across Prandine's thin face. 

     "Exactly. No more kings and queens getting in the way of what my master wants." 

      "Your...master?" Jasmine asked, vomiting and collapsing onto her knees. "Who could-" 

       And then she realized there was only one person in the world who would benefit from the end of the royal line. The Shadow Lord. 

       "Y-you've been doing all this...for him?" 

       "Yes," Prandine said, as he walked towards the door. "Enjoying knowing in your last moments that all your rebellion was for naught." 

       With that, he exited the room and closed the door, leaving Jasmine to her suffering. A suffering which burned through her mind and allowed her to remember one clear thing: the emerald was an antidote to poison. 

       Jasmine's hand searched for the emerald, and on finding it, clutched it hard. After a few moments, Jasmine became stronger and stronger, the poison seeming to disappear until one last vomit completely eradicated from her system.

       Saved from her fate, Jasmine got up, took the knife, and walked out the door and down the stairs of the tower, eager to start her new life as queen. 

       Fate had different plans, of course. 

       

       

 

 

 

        

        

 

 

 

      


	2. Into the Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasmine is unceremoniously forced into exiting the palace, allowing her to see the city of Del for the first time.

         For the very next person Jasmine came in contact with, as she walked triumphantly out of the tower and through the palace gardens, was Barda, captain of the royal guard. 

         "Barda!" Jasmine announced, beaming. "Prandine has just attempted to commit high treason. He threatened me with this knife-"

         Jasmine held up Prandine's knife, 

         "And I believe you'll find he poisoned my breakfast this morning. Arrest him and bring him to the throne room so I can sentence him." 

         Barda, rather than reply, or immediately obey, simply glowered at her with an enormous scowl on his face. A scowl which startled Jasmine. Granted, she and Barda did not have the best of relationships. For most of her life, Barda had been as much an obstacle to her as Prandine had been, albeit a reluctant one. It had been his duty to cart Jasmine away from the other children in the palace when she was six, because according to the Rule, the royal family was not to mingle with ordinary people or the nobility. The heir apparent stayed in his or her section of the palace, and that was it. When Jasmine was eleven, it had been his job to keep her from climbing over the palace walls, because according to the Rule, the royal family must never leave the palace. And when she was fourteen, it had been Barda's duty to drag her away from whatever boyfriend she had at the time and back to her blacksmithing lessons, because Adin happened to have been a blacksmith, and therefore learning how to be a blacksmith was part of the Rule. 

 

        But despite him constantly blocking her from doing the things she liked, she was rather fond of the man. He was like an uncle, almost-a very surly uncle, but still.

         And as she was his queen, his duty was now far greater than merely preventing her from breaking the Rule. Indeed, now it was to help her overturn the Rule altogether and properly rule Deltora. His own personal feelings on a matter had never been important; duty was his sole guiding principle, a principle Jasmine grudgingly respected him for.

        And yet now, for some reason, he was disobeying said principle. Which was odd- he'd never seemed to bear any great love for Prandine. Just the opposite, actually-the captain seemed to hate Prandine almost as much as he hated chasing after Jasmine. 

         "You are not the one who should be doing the sentencing," Barda growled.

          Jasmine's jaw dropped

         "What on earth do you mean?" she gasped. "I-I- my father is _dead_! _I_ am the the queen now! Who else should be sentencing him but-" 

         Rather than reply, Barda instead chose to draw his sword and hit her over the head with the flat of his blade. 

          And then it was all darkness. 

         ***

         When Jasmine awoke, she found herself at the bottom of a hill, near a crowd of thin, ragged people carrying baskets and bags. A rubbish cart came down the hill, and the people descended upon it, stuffing old bones, crusts, and vegetable peels into their baskets and mouths.

         What? Where-

          And at the top of the hill, she saw the palace gates and wall, and above that, there was nothing but mist. 

          _I-I'm outside the palac_ e, she realized. _And-these people, they're-_

         There were starving, and behind her, the city-the beautiful city she'd seen so many times from her window-was nonexistent. Instead it was a city of ruins. The roads were riddled with holes, the grain fields barren and choked with weeds, and the trees stunted and twisted. 

         Everything-everything she'd seen from her window had been a lie. A great, big, horrible lie. 

        Who had created this evil spell? It couldn't possibly be the chief advisers-conniving and treacherous as they were, they didn't have the power to-

       Then Jasmine remembered what Prandine had said. About him working for the Shadow Lord.  The Shadow Lord. _He_ had cast this evil spell. 

        Jasmine ran back up the hill, fed up with everything. It was past time for her to take her throne, and put a stop to all this. 

        Eventually, she came up to the gates, came face to face with the guards, and ordered, 

        "Open the gates. Your queen commands it." 

         The guards, rather than obey her, burst into laughter. 

        "Queen?" the one on the left guffawed. "What queen? I don't see any queen." 

        "What do you _mean_ you don't see any queen?" Jasmine exclaimed. " _I'm_ the queen. _Your_ queen. Queen _Jasmine_." 

       The guards only continued to laugh harder. 

       " _You're_ the princess? Princess Jasmine?" the one on the right said. "Yeah, right, and I'm Adin's father-in-law." 

       "Go away, peasant," the one the left said. "Shoo. Leave us in peace!" 

       "Peasant?" Are you-" Jasmine began, only to find when she looked down at herself that she was, indeed, dressed like a peasant. Her violet surcoat and kirtle had been replaced with a somewhat worn brown dress and rough linen shirt underneath and her delicate slippers had been replaced with sturdy boots. Over all this was a coarse wool cloak.

        "Barda," Jasmine hissed to herself.

         He must have been in cahoots with Prandine, a back-up in case the poison failed to kill her.

       In a panic, Jasmine felt about her waist for the Belt, and to her relief saw that it was still there, just carefully hidden under her dress. _Over_ her dress, however, was a pouch filled with a strange, jingling substance. Jasmine opened it, and saw that it was filled with with gold and silver coins, and a folded up little note. Curious, Jasmine unfolded the note and read it. 

             The note said: 

              _Find Min_. _My mother, Min. She'll know what to do._

              _From,_

_Barda._

             How rude! First he betrayed her, and now he wrote to her so casually, as if she was a scullery maid or something, and not, say, _the queen of Deltora_!

              But...since these cretins refused to believe she was who she said she was, it was her best shot. Besides, there was no way she could possibly protect Deltora from the Shadow Lord and undo the centuries' worth of corruption in the palace if the Belt wouldn't shine for her.

             With a heavy sigh, she walked back down the hill, the guards jeering at her as she did, and set off towards the city. The beggars, had, surprisingly, already dispersed, and the rubbish cart was long gone. 

             The city's people were much not better off than the beggars. For although most of the citizens had some sort of employment, said employment, whatever the form, did not appear to enrich anyone who had it all that much. Indeed, the only people who looked like they had any sort of financial success were the guards, who casually milled about as if nothing was wrong. 

             It was one of these guards that Jasmine sought for directions to find Min, reasoning that they, of all people, would know the most about Barda's mysterious mother. 

             "Excuse me," she asked a guard. "But would you happen to know where Min is? She's-" 

            "Oh, yes, _Min_ ," the guard said with a hearty laugh. "She lives at the Queen's Mouth. Here, take her this letter." 

            Jasmine grudgingly accepted the letter, and then asked around for directions to the Queen's Mouth. The latter earned her funny looks and lines like "Are you sure you want go to there? I mean, a respectable lady like you should really stay away from that place..." 

           And upon walking through the doors of the Queen's Mouth, Jasmine immediately found out why. 

            The inside of the Queen's Mouth appeared to be something like a parlor, filled with scantily-clad women milling about on couches. Some chatted with men briefly and then went with them upstairs to one of various rooms on the second floor. Others emerged from rooms on the second floor, alongside a man who handed them some coins, often in the process of lacing up his breeches as he did.

          Jasmine, much to the chagrin of Prandine, had heard of places like this; they were what the servants and guards had called _brothels_. And the women who lived in them apparently offered to make love to any man who could pay them. Jasmine hadn't believed it, but then again, before today, she also wouldn't have believed that Barda was working with Prandine, who was also working for the Shadow Lord. 

         "Excuse me," Jasmine asked one of the women sitting on the couches. "But do you know where _Min_ is?" 

         A hush went over the room. Everyone, from customer to prostitute, stopped what they were doing and turned towards Jasmine. 

         "You're pretty brave to say that name in Natalia's place," remarked the woman whom Jasmine had asked. "Either brave or very, very foolish." 

         Jasmine raised an eyebrow. 

         "Brave? How I am brave? I just asked a-" 

         "Min's dead," another one of the women whispered in Jasmine's ear. "Natalia had her killed a couple of days ago." 

         "Killed? Wha-why-?" 

         "She was going to go over to the Vinchettis," the woman explained. "They offered her her own private suite."

          "And you never, _never_ double-cross Natalia like that," the woman whom Jasmine had originally asked added, shaking her head.

         "Well...the Vinchettis _are_ a lot nicer to their girls than Natalia is," the helpful woman countered. "I kind of understand why she-" 

          "Whoa, whoa, slow down," Jasmine demanded. "When did Barda's _mother_ become a prostitute? And when did this Natalia lady think-" 

          " _Barda_?" a voice from the front door interrupted. "As in, Barda the captain of the guard?" 

         Jasmine turned towards the voice, and saw that it came from a tall, slender young man of about sixteen who manned the front door. The boy wore a chainmail tunic and patched breeches, and had a sword at his belt, upon which his hand was continually resting. Judging from this, and the way he'd been scanning about the room earlier, it was obvious what he was here for; he was a bodyguard of sorts for these ladies of the evening. 

         "Yes," Jasmine replied, stunned that the overly proper Barda would know anyone even _remotely_ connected to a brothel.  "I'm...looking for his mother. He...he put a note in my pouch saying that I should find her." 

          The boy snorted. 

           " _Trust him_ to come looking for us when it's already too late," he snapped. "His _mother_ is dead. Long, long dead. She's been dead for _three years_ now. But I guess Mr. 'I Have No Nephews Or Nieces' wouldn't care about _that_ too much." 

         "Y-you're his _nephew_?!" Jasmine gasped. 

          Jasmine hadn't thought much about the families of the palace guards, but she'd always assumed they cared about them. The idea of Barda- even a traitorous, disloyal Barda- refusing to so much as _acknowledge_ his family shocked her. 

          "Yeah, and a fat lot of good it did me and my siblings when our parents died," the boy added. "The bastard didn't even bother to kick us out in _person_ -he just had a lackey send back a message to the front gate saying, 'I have no nephews or nieces, I was an _only child_.'"

         The boy spat on the ground. 

         "You can go tell him that his mother- _our grandmother_ \- burned to a crisp three years ago in the old forge alongside the _rest_ of his family, and that thanks to him, his nephews have been forced into _indentured servitude_ to the Stregazzas, and that his niece is basically Natalia's prisoner and _bargaining chip_ to keep his nephews in line _._ " 

        Jasmine sighed.

        Well. That was one hope down the drain. Barda's mother-this woman who would supposedly 'know what to do' was dead, and all that survived of her was three angry grandchildren. Worse, apparently there was now a whole group of people called the Stregazzas who put orphans into indentured servitude, and a murderous Natalia woman who owned an entire brothel. And another, rival group called the Vinchettis, who apparently treated their prostitutes slightly better. 

          This, on top of the Shadow Lord, was beginning to become a very, very big headache.

         "I...I'm sorry about your grandmother," Jasmine said to the boy.. "And...the rest of your family. And...the way you've been treated by Barda. Uh..."

          Jasmine turned towards the prostitutes. 

          "Well, I...um, have a letter for the um... _other_ Min, the one you said Natalia killed. A, uh, _guard_ gave it to me, to take to her."

         The boy at the door's eyes widened. He walked over to Jasmine and demanded, 

        "Give me that letter." 

        "Uh...why are you so interested in the love letters of a dead woman?" 

        At least, Jasmine assumed it was a love letter. What other sort of letter would a guardsman write to a lady of the evening? 

        "Because it's not a love letter," the boy said. "And the other Min's not dead." 

        Before Jasmine could say anything, the boy grabbed Jasmine by the arm and dragged her into a small, unused bedroom to the side of the parlor. He then pulled a small figurine on one of the bookshelves, causing said bookshelf to move all the way to the left, revealing a hidden staircase. The boy then proceeded to drag Jasmine down the hidden staircase, through an endless dark passage way, and finally up a ladder to what appeared to be a cottage on the outskirts of the city. In front of the cottage there was what appeared to be a dark-haired fourteen-year-old boy tending to a vegetable garden. 

         The young gardener turned towards Jasmine and her escort and raised an eyebrow. 

        "Lief?" he asked, clearly confused. "What are you doing off whore-guarding duty?"  

         "Never mind that, Roland, " snapped Lief, for apparently that was the name of Jasmine's escort. "This girl has a message for Min." 

         "From the guard?" Roland asked.

         Lief nodded. 

         Roland ushered them into the cottage, where a pretty young woman with dull red hair stood chopping up onions for what appeared to be dinner.

        "Lief says he's got a message for you, Min," the young gardener announced to the young woman. 

        Min eyed Lief and Jasmine up and down. 

        "And...he needs to bring along some girl he picked off the street to do it?" she snapped. "I thought this was a covert operation!" 

        "Well, she was the one Tommy gave the letter to..." 

       Jasmine gritted her teeth. Lifting up her bodice to reveal the Belt, she snapped, 

      "For your information, I am Jasmine, daughter of the late King Endon, rightful queen of all Deltora!" 

      Lief, Min, and Roland all proceeded to stare at the Belt in shock and awe. 

       "F-forgive me, Your Highness," Lief stammered in a gratifyingly apologetic way, "I..I.. did not know. I-" 

       "What is the _queen_ doing running errands for the guard?" Min asked, wide-eyed. "More importantly, what's she doing outside the palace?" 

       "Do I need a reason to visit my own subjects?" Jasmine snapped. 

       "No, I guess not-" 

       "Good. Then will someone please explain what's going on?" 

       Min sighed and proceeded to sit everyone down at the table. 

        "Alright...the long and short of it is, Your Majesty, is that I'm Natalia's most lucrative working girl," Min began. " That should make me the envy of Del, but Natalia keeps taking pretty much all of my money. And recently the Vinchettis made me an offer to come work for them, which, I accepted, because they made me a much better. I get my own private suite, and I can set my own hours, and best of all, they'll only take a tenth of my money, unlike nasty Natalia. But there's one problem." 

        "Natalia doesn't want you working for her rivals?" Jasmine guessed. 

          Min nodded. 

        "The streets would be stained red with my blood if she knew. So my guardsman friend and I came up with a plan: I feed him information on all of Natalia's illicit dealings, and when he has enough information he gets a group of his buddies together and proceeds to absolutely wipe her off the map. Once Natalia's gone, I join the Vinchettis and start living on easy street." 

       "I see," Jasmine said, passing Min the letter. "And Roland? He's your...little brother or something?" 

        Min and Roland burst out laughing. 

       "No, thank goodness, _no_ ," Min said. "Roland's just...an associate." 

       "An associate who'd have better served minding his own business and leaving Min to hers," Lief scoffed. "All the Stregazza money be damned." 

       "Yes, for some reason, Natalia recently decided to put aside her own son, Terence, in favor of Roland," Min explained to Jasmine with a chuckle. "Who just so happens to be her personal punching bag, and well, slave in all but name, alongside Lief and their little sister Mia. Yeah. All that milk of the poppy has clearly gone to old Natalia's head." 

      "But once Min's guard friend and his buddies put Natalia away, all that's going to change," Roland added, his eyes lighting up in excitement. "With all her money, we'll be able to rebuild the old forge at last. None of us will ever have to see hair nor hide of her compound ever again. We can hire a tutor for Mia-for all of us, get as much as education as we so desire. The ladies will be lining up to marry Lief and me, we'll be Del's most eligible bachelors-" 

       "It's a nice fantasy, Roland, but it's not going to happen," Lief pointed out. "The palace guard has never cared about what Natalia or the Vinchettis do, and they're not going to care now." 

       "And...ever repaying the debt Natalia keeps piling interest on _is_?" Roland asked. "Face it, big brother, it's either this or we're stuck with the Stregazzas forever." 

       "Then I guess we're stuck with the Stregazzas." 

       "I wouldn't say that," Min said as she opened up the letter. "It says the guard has enough information and is going the compound tonight at sundown. And not just the compound-every little place the Stregazzas ever put their grubby little hands on." 

      Roland's face burst into a big smile. 

      "We're free, brother!" he exclaimed, clapping Lief on the back. "You, me, Mia-we're all free!" 

      "I..I guess we just might be," Lief admitted, stunned. 

     "And now I think you owe us an explanation, Your Majesty," Min said with a small smile. "Tell us, how does the queen end up as a courier for the palace guard? And how come nobody even knew King Alton died in the first place?" 

      Jasmine sighed and began telling the sordid tale from the beginning, with Alton's death. She told them everything, leaving not a single detail out. When at last, she ended with where she currently was now, Roland said with a smirk,

      "So...you're not actually the queen yet." 

      "What?" Jasmine exclaimed. "Of course I'm the queen! My father is dead, ergo, I'm the queen." 

     "I'm afraid he's technically right, Your Highness," Lief pointed out with a shrug. "My grandmother taught us that kings and queens are crowned when the heir puts on the Belt and it shines for them. You may have put on the Belt, but it didn't shine for you, so you're technically still a princess." 

     "I am-" 

     Jasmine was then suddenly interrupted by a large crash from outside the cottage. Min glowered at Roland. 

    "I told you that fence wasn't stable!" she said. 

     Min stood up and walked towards the door. 

     "I'd better go and fix it before the goat escapes," she said as she walked out the door. 

     "And I'd better head back before Natalia notices I've left the working girls all alone," Lief added. "You, Your Highness, you should probably stay with Roland." 

     "Wh-what?" Jasmine protested. 

     "This Prandine person tried to kill you," Lief pointed out. "Who's to say he won't try again? And my uncle threw you out of the palace to look for a dead woman- who's to say he won't team up with Prandine? You're safest here for the time being." 

     Jasmine sighed. 

      "Alright. But only for the time being." 

      "But of course," Lief said as he walked out of the cottage. 

     The fence had not, in fact, crashed on its own. That was the fault of an overly curious prostitute who, upon learning that Min was alive, had followed Lief and Jasmine through the secret passage and was not very good at espionage. But neither Min nor Lief would ever know this, for the prostitute had long high-tailed it back to Natalia's compound, and proceeded to burst into Natalia's office, interrupting a heated argument between Natalia and Terence, the latter of whom had just found out he'd been passed over for Roland. 

       "Min's alive," the prostitute gasped. "And she's been feeding information about us to the guard. And the guard's going to raid us at sundown. And...Roland's working with her, boss." 

       "What?" Natalia gasped. "H-how did-" 

       "But of course," Terence said, rolling his eyes. "The cheated whore and the errand boy you like to beat up for kicks have teamed up to plot your doom. What a shocking development, truly." 

        _Ancestors_ , Terence thought to himself. _I'm surprised it didn't come sooner_. 

        "How did you find this out?" Natalia demanded, taking a swig out of her vial of milk of the poppy.

        That was her last vial of the stuff, Terence had made sure of that. The stab wound had healed ages ago, and the stuff was clearly taking its toll on her mind. She may have disowned him she may have arranged a marriage for Terence to a girl he absolutely couldn't stand-an arrangement which had ended the purest love he'd ever known-but she was still his mother, and he would not see her succumb to the drug. 

       "Lief," the prostitute said. "I...I followed him and the...the girl down a secret passage in the Queen's Mouth to a cottage where...Min and Roland were hiding." 

        Terence glowered at the prostitute. How dare she? What had his dear, sweet Lief ever done to _her_? 

        "Lief?" Natalia gasped. "My Lief? But...but..." 

        "I don't think he's in on it, mother," Terence said quickly. "He's probably just protecting his little brother." 

         This, of course, was absolute horseshit, since, given her habit of torturing Mia whenever Lief and Roland displeased her, Lief had even more motive than Roland to betray her. Fortunately, Natalia's drug-addled brain appeared to be swayed by it, as she took a deep breath and snapped her fingers. The two bodyguards who had been guarding the office immediately came running in. 

        "You two," she ordered. "Go and dispense Stregazza justice to Roland and Min. This young lady," 

       Natalia pointed towards the prostitute,

       "She'll show you the way." 

        The bodyguards nodded, bowed, and followed the prostitute out of the office. Terence, as much as he wanted to question the wisdom of sending your bodyguards to do a grunt's job when they were about to be raided, had other business to take care of. Namely, warning his sweet, beloved Lief, collecting him, Roland, and Mia, and getting as far away from Del as conceivably possible. 

       So Terence rushed out of the room, leaving Natalia all alone in the office. But not for long: for the moment Terence left, a door to the side of Natalia's opened, and none other than little Mia herself walked into the room, calmly arranging her hair into two little pale blond braids. 

       "Thank you for getting rid of Roland for me," she said with a smile. "You've cut my workload quite nicely in half." 

        Upon hearing those words, Natalia's eyes widened, the implications of those words swiftly burning away the drug haze and leaving only horror behind. 

        "Oh, no," she gasped. "What have I done?" 

        "Played right into my hands, is what," Mia said. "Oh, you were good, Natalia, very good. You kept me away from them for a very, very long time. Just long enough-you might even have succeeded in your little plan now that Alton's dead. But, alas, you tripped at the finish line." 

        Mia walked over to the desk and picked up the vial. 

       "I see that Terence is determined to save you from yourself," she observed coolly. " Taking away the source of your predicament. Even though you so cruelly disowned him for something he can't control." 

       "He's a homosexual," Natalia spat. " He'll give me no grandchildren and drive us into the ground." 

       "As opposed to Roland, your heterosexual bond servant with a mile long list of grievances against you, who conspired to take you down?" Mia chuckled. "Clearly, your bigotry has led you in the right direction." 

      Mia walked over to one of the big windows and opened it. 

      "It's too bad Terence isn't a doctor," she added. "Otherwise he would have known to wean you gradually off such a powerful drug, as opposed to making you go cold turkey." 

       Mia tossed the vial of milk of the poppy out the window. 

       "Farewell, Natalia," she said as she walked towards the exit. "Enjoy the slow, agonizing death from opium withdrawal. That is, if the guard doesn't hang you first." 

       

      

   

         

 

     

         


	3. Up in Flames

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natalia's thugs arrive at the cottage. Lief, Jasmine, and Terence deal with the aftermath of the raid. Jasmine, Lief, and Mia set off for Tora. Barda figures out a secret and sets off on Lief and Jasmine's trail. Mia contemplates murder.

           Naturally, Lief was not too thrilled to see Terence.

           "For the last time, Terence,"  Lief snapped, rolling his eyes. "We're _done_. There is _nothing_ you can say to make me take you back."

           "I'm not here about that, Lief," Terence told him.  "I'm here because Roland is in danger." 

          Lief's eyes widened. 

          "Roland-?"

         "One of the Queen's Mouth girls followed you on the way to whatever secret hiding place you put Roland and Min in," Terence explained, "And she told my mother. I managed to convince my mother you weren't in on the plan, but Roland-Natalia's sent her personal guard to ensure he won't be getting the money."

        "And that Min won't be leaving us for the Vinchettis," Lief added, his mouth ajar. "Come. There's no time to waste." 

        And so down the secret passage the two boys went, desperate to save Roland. Behind them, the sun was setting, and the palace guards were advancing upon Natalia's compound. 

*** 

       The door  fell down with a loud thud as two of the largest, brawniest men Jasmine had ever seen stormed into the cottage. The first guard took one glance at Roland, who was washing the dishes, and then seized him by the throat. The man then twisted the boy's neck and Roland fell to the kitchen floor, a lifeless corpse. The second man then advanced towards Min, who was tending the fire, stoking the flames with a poker. With a horrified scream, Min took her hot poker and shoved it into the advancing guard's eye. The man then staggered back a bit, clutching his injured eye with his hand. Min then stabbed the injured man's stomach, causing him to bend over and sink to his knees. 

         Just then, Lief and a blond boy of about sixteen burst into the cottage, swords drawn. Terence stabbed the injured man in the back, causing him to fall onto the ground dead. The remaining man advanced toward Lief, who stabbed him in the stomach. The man doubled over in pain, allowing Terence to slash at his throat. The man collapsed onto the floor near Roland, blood pooling around him.   

         The danger passed, Lief and the blond boy wiped their swords clean and sheathed them. 

         "Are you all right, Min?" Lief exclaimed. 

         "I'm fine," Min assured them. "So's the queen. She's at the top of the stairs."

          "The...queen?" the blond boy cried, confused. "What's Alton's _wife_ doing here?" 

          "I'm not Alton's wife," Jasmine said as she descended the stairs. "I'm his granddaughter." 

          " _Granddaughter_?"

          "Yes...Alton and his son are both dead. Did the whore who betrayed us forget to mention that?" Lief snapped. "Anyway, Your Highness, this is Terence, Natalia's son. Terence, this Her Highness Queen Jasmine, or, more accurately, Princess Jasmine, since the Belt has yet to shine for her. Now, where's Roland?"

          "Roland," Jasmine began, shaking as she tried to figure out how to break the news. "He...he...they...we couldn't stop them." 

           Lief glanced at the lifeless body of Roland on the floor, knelt down beside it, and checked for a pulse. When no pulse was found, Lief clutched Roland's body, held it to his chest, and let out the most blood-curling scream Jasmine had ever heard in her life. 

          "No...Roland, no," Lief cried, his eyes welling up with tears. "Roland, I'm so sorry...I...I..."

***

         Although nobody except Min really wished to, they ended up staying the night at the cottage. Terence, Lief, and Jasmine each had reasons to leave, but all of them were vetoed by Min with a vengeance. 

         Terence's reason was that he wanted to try and save Natalia. Naturally, he was alone in that, as neither Min nor Jasmine bore any great love for the crime boss, and in the eyes of the newly grieving Lief, Natalia losing everything and being sentenced to hang was just desserts for her part in Roland's murder. And, as Min pointed out, disowned or not, the guards would string Terence up right alongside his mother if they caught him. 

          "I don't care," was Terence's response. "She's still my mother." 

        "She _disowned_ you, Terence!" Lief cried. "She disowned you for something you can't control! _And_ she murdered my brother! _How_ can you justify saving her?"

        "Don't forget," Min interjected, "That if she knew that _Lief_ was the one you addressed those love letters to, she would've had his head in a heartbeat."

        Both Terence and Lief turned to stare at Min. 

        "I....what?" Lief gasped. 

        "You really think you were the only ones that knew? " Min asked as she took a sip of tea. "You might have fooled Natalia, and her goons, and Roland and Mia, but you never fooled me. I always knew you and Terence were lovers." 

       Min reached for Terence's hand. 

       "I'm sorry," she said. "But she's had this coming for a long time. If it wasn't the guards who'd get her, it would have been the poppy milk. That woman is too far gone." 

       Terence sighed. 

       "You're right," he said. "But...I just wish that wasn't the case." 

       Lief had a similar reason: Mia, his little sister, was in the compound alongside the rest of the Stregazza, and he didn't trust the guards not to hurt her. But Terence assured Lief that Min was locked up in her bedchamber and that he doubted the guards would be too interested in a nursery. 

          "I don't know," Lief grumbled, "There could be plenty of men in the royal guard with unsavory interests in that direction."

           But Lief was pacified by Terence and Min, and in the end he too stayed. 

          Jasmine's reasons were broader in scope. 

          "I am the queen," she said. "I can't sit here any longer. I have get back, arrest Prandine and Barda, retake control of Deltora before it's too late, and oh, put Natalia on trial." 

          "You're not safe up there," Min pointed out. 

          "And like I was safe _here_?" Jasmine cried. "Natalia's personal bodyguards were led here and they could have killed me too!"

          "But if you go back it's practically guaranteed that Prandine will try to kill you again," Lief pointed out. "And there's a good chance my uncle will, too." 

          "And if you die, Your Highness," Terence added, "The Belt will crumble to pieces, as you are the last of Adin's bloodline. And then the Shadow Lord will invade." 

         "Crumble?" Jasmine asked. "I...I didn't know...I" 

         And thus Jasmine was pacified into staying at the cottage. The next morning, Min went up to survey the damage. Natalia was gone, and most of the Stregazza were either dead or captured, but there were around a dozen Stregazza still around. And while a great deal of Natalia's possessions were gone, her money was not. The prostitutes of the Queen's Mouth had also survived, Lief having told them to scatter before the raid. 

          With that done, they then proceeded to cremate Roland and store his ashes in one of Natalia's fancy vases. And after that it was time for goodbyes. 

          "Well, it's been nice knowing you three," Jasmine began as Min carted away the makeshift urn of Roland's ashes, "But I really have to go. I mean-I only came here for Lief's grandmother, but she's dead, and presumably whatever answers she had are dead with her. So it's time for me to go and try to find out why the Belt won't shine for me. After all, if it won't shine, I can't defeat Prandine." 

           "So where do you think you'll go?" Terence asked. 

           "Well, I think the answers I need might be in Tora," Jasmine replied. "After all, there's so much magic and wisdom there, so it makes sense." 

           "Seems smart," Lief agreed. "You mind if Mia and I come with you?" 

           Jasmine's eyes widened. 

           "Well, Natalia's going to be executed, so I think my debt to her is pretty much nullified," Lief explained. "But even if it wasn't-I'm not going to work for the people who killed my little brother. I'm just...not."

          Lief glanced up at the empty compound and then added, 

         "And I'm not leaving Mia behind." 

          "Uh, sure..." Jasmine replied. "The more the merrier!"

         Terence's jaw dropped.

        "Are you crazy, Lief?" he exclaimed. "The road is filled with monsters, bandits, thieves, and all sorts of unsavory people. The fact that the _queen_ has decided to thrust herself into the thick of all that without so much as a bodyguard is bad enough, but exposing _Mia_ to that danger?" 

        "Oh, and she's safe _here_ , is she?" Lief snapped. "What with the remainder of the Stregazzas wanting vengeance for what Roland and Min did?" 

         "The only members who knew were the ones my mother sent to the cottage," Terence said. "The ones we _killed, remember?_ " 

         Just then the doors of the compound opened, and a little girl of about ten with two blond braids and big blue eyes walked out of it. 

         "I...I hope I'm not late for Roland's funeral," the girl said. "Am I?" 

         "You are," Terence said, turning to face the little girl. "I'm sorry, Mia. We've already cremated him." 

         Mia wiped her eyes of slowly forming tears. 

         "Oh well," she said glumly, "At least we're free of Natalia and our debt. We are, aren't we Terence?" 

         "You are, sweetie," Terence assured her. "I would never put your brother in such a position, especially after the loss of...well, the loss of Roland." 

         "Speaking of freedom," Lief said, placing an arm around his sister, "It's time to go pack your things, Mia. We're going to be accompanying this nice lady," 

         Lief briefly glanced at Jasmine, 

        "On a journey to Tora." 

        Mia's eyes widened. 

        "Oh. And...who is this lady, exactly?" 

        "It doesn't matter," Terence cut in, stepping in between Mia and Lief. "Because you're not going to Tora, Mia. You're staying with me." 

        Mia pouted. 

        "Why not?" she whined. "It sounds fun." 

        "It's too dangerous-the road is full of nasty characters." 

        "So is home, but I still had to live here," Mia countered. "And besides, Tora sounds fun." 

        Lief shrugged and ushered Mia away from Terence. 

        "Can't argue with that," he said.

        "I can protect her here," Terence snapped. "I can order my men not to hurt her." 

        "Yeah, but you can order the prostitute who ratted Roland out to Natalia to keep her mouth shut?" Jasmine asked. "Speaking of which, do we even know where she is?" 

        "N-no," Terence admitted. "But we will search for her-" 

        "By the time you find her, she could have revealed your secret to every single remaining Stregazza in Del," Jasmine said. "And there aren't that many Stregazzas left for her to tell. Do you want to risk Mia's safety with a bunch of gang members who may or may not be loyal, who may or may not accept you as a legitimate successor to your mother?" 

         "I...I suppose not," Terence conceded. 

         "Good," Lief said, ushering Mia into the compound. "Then it's settled. Mia is coming with us." 

           ***

          While Lief, Jasmine, and Mia set off for the city of Tora, Prandine found himself in quite the predicament. The first part of this predicament being that he had decide the fates of at least a dozen gangsters, and an opium-addled crime boss, and quickly. 

           Storing them in the dungeons was, obviously, out of the question. Whatever castle servant was ordered to feed them would be given ample cause to question things, namely, the Rule, and how effective it was. After all, it wasn't just the royals kept ignorant by the Rule; almost nobody in the castle even knew there was an organized crime problem in the first place. The sudden discovery of one could very well end up destroying everything. Letting them go was equally as dicey; the palace guard, who, much to Prandine's surprise, were less corrupt than he thought, would object, and question, and they might very well end up revealing everything because of their damned honor. 

        No, the only solution was to execute them all-and discreetly. The only problem was, where? Not in the city, obviously-that would cause the people to start having faith in their rulers, which would only strengthen the Belt and give the royals more power, even if they knew nothing of the execution. 

      The palace was no good either- the screams of the dying might cause people to come investigate. No, there was only one place to get rid of them-the guard barracks where they were currently being held. The only people there were the guards-who would most certainly not question the choice to kill them. Hell-they might even do it for Prandine.

       And thus Natalia and her fellow Stregazza met their end in the holding cells of the guard barracks, where their throats were all slit by the guards. 

       Thus the first part was concluded; the second part was Queen Sharn. Queen Sharn, as it transpired, had noticed that her daughter was missing, and demanded to know why.

       "She's probably run away," Prandine said as he clicked his tongue. "Run away with some new lover because she can't stand the responsibility of being queen."

      "Can't stand the responsibility?!" Sharn exclaimed. "My daughter may be rebellious, but she would never abandon her duty! In fact, last I saw her, she was doing the opposite!"

      Yes. Attempting to put on the Belt. Damn. Hiding the girl's death was going to be harder than he thought. Perhaps he should have stuck to the plan, let her birth one last generation, but...

     "It...it's true!" Barda blurted out as he leaned against Prandine's desk. "I...I saw her myself! She...she was running off with my nephew!" 

     Sharn's eyes narrowed. 

     "Your _nephew_?" 

     "Yes," Barda said, nodding furiously. "The boy's a sneaky little con artist, I'm not surprised he managed to smuggle her out of the palace..." 

     "You're an _only child_ ," Sharn spat. "You can't have any nephews!" 

     Sharn turned on her heel and stormed out of Prandine's office in disgust. 

     "How does she know that?" Prandine cried, his eyes wide open. "She can't know that unless she broke the Rule. She's been mingling with the servants!" 

     Prandine bolted out of his chair and rushed towards the door, determined to deal with this crafty, clever royal consort and find out who she'd been talking to. Once he was out of the room, Barda sighed and shut the door behind him. 

      Ah, good. Finally, an opportunity to find his mother's letters! Wherever the conniving little bastard had hid them. 

      Like most people in the castle, he'd gone almost his entire life believing that his mother, Min, had run away from the castle after insinuating to Prandine that Endon-a baby at the time-was a bastard. That she'd simply abandoned Barda to go and live in Del. And Barda had hated her for it.  He had vowed to never be like her, to never question the Rule, and to have, above all else, unswerving devotion to the royal family. 

     But then, not a day after Endon had died, Prandine came to Barda and told him the shocking, horrifying truth. Min's aims were far different-and she'd never meant to abandon him at all. 

    "She wrote you letters every week," Prandine had gloated. "Just as she wrote King Alton letters."

     Upon learning the truth, Barda had had no choice but to get rid of Jasmine. She was completely unfit to be queen. Hopefully, Min would have told her as much by now. 

      Barda rifled through Prandine's desk, searching and searching until at last he found two neatly tied up bundles of paper. The first bundle were the letters she'd written to Alton-of which he'd read enough of to get what Prandine had been trying to tell him. The second bundle was  the long overdue prize-the letters Min had written to Barda. Barda eagerly untied the bundle and read through them all. And the more he read, the more he started to weep. 

        Not only had Min never abandoned him, she had never expected to stay in Del for very long in the first place. It was only Prandine's machinations that had kept her there in the first place. 

        And what was worse, the three children who'd come to the palace gate begging to see Barda three years ago? They'd hadn't been impostors. They were for real. Lief, Roland, and Mia-those same three names were the names Min listed in her last letters as the names of her grandchildren. 

         And Barda had carelessly turned them away without a word. 

        Furious with himself, Barda re-tied the letters back into a bundle, smuggled both bundles out of Prandine's office, and he tore off into the city, desperate to find Min, to see that she was still alive. Hoping that he hadn't condemned the only family he'd ever know to live on the streets. 

         But as it turned out, he _had_. Because several hours later, staring at the ruins of what had once been Adin's forge, and after asking several passerby, Barda discovered that what the boy Lief had claimed-that his parents and Min had burned to death in the family forge, leaving him and his siblings as orphans-was all true. And what was worse, after Barda had turned them away, Lief and Roland had forced to work for the Stregazza crime family, while their sister, Mia-she ended up as Natalia's prisoner. 

       Which meant they could very well have ended up among the dead after the raid last night.

        Barda rushed towards the Stregazza compound, where he saw that, much to his relief, not all of the Stregazza grunts were dead. Which meant that Lief, Roland, and Mia could still be alive. 

        After purposefully antagonizing the guards into getting them an audience with their leader, Barda found himself face to face with a thin, blond boy of sixteen, albeit one with a very sad expression on his face. 

        "Who are you, and what do you want?" the boy snapped as he lounged in his desk chair. 

        "I'm Barda," he said. "Captain of the palace guard. And I want to know if my nephews and niece are still alive." 

        The boy snorted. 

        "Fine time for you to care about them _now_ ," he snapped. "Three years ago when they asked you for help you couldn't care less about." 

        "Are they alive or not?" Barda barked. 

        "Lief's alive," the boy said. "I saw to that myself. So's Mia, but Roland, though...Roland didn't make it." 

        "I...I..." 

        "He was killed by my mother's bodyguards, if you want to know," the boy snapped. "And we already cremated him. Now, if that's all you want-"  

        "Where's Lief?" Barda asked. "There's something very important I need to tell him." 

        The boy rolled his eyes . 

        "He left for Tora with Mia and some girl," the boy snapped. "So I'm afraid you've lost your chance at a tearful reunion."

        "Some... _girl_?" Barda said. "Lief is courting?" 

        "I should think not," the boy snorted. "She's all high-class and snobbish, I doubt she'd go for someone as penniless as he is. He should have taken the money when-"

        A high-class, snobbish girl...who did that sound like? And Jasmine had been told to look for someone named Min. And while _Barda's_ Min was dead, he knew for a fact that there was a prostitute with the very same name working in the Queen's Mouth, a brothel owned by none other than...the Stregazzas.

       Somehow, Barda had hit two birds with one stone. 

       "Thank you," Barda replied, dashing out of the office with renewed purpose.  "For all of your help." 

        He hardly got three steps out of the office, however, before he realized that he might very well die on the road to Tora. Bandits were everywhere, after all, and so were monsters. So back into the office Barda went, to sheepishly ask: 

       "Would you mind loaning me a pen and paper?" 

       The boy agreed, and Barda hastily wrote down a letter to Lief, to be delivered in case Barda should die. Barda packed the letter into his possessions, and then set off to find Jasmine and Lief.

 

       

       

       

       

    

 

     


	4. A Village Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasmine, Lief, and Mia continue traveling to Tora. When attacked by monsters and bandits, Lief decides that it's not safe for Mia to travel with them. But when Mia is left with a long-lost aunt, her true nature is revealed...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the actual Anna is not Lief's mother in this, because that would be gross. On so many levels.

            Life on the road turned to be completely different from palace life. Between sleeping on the ground, the only food being stale provisions and whatever berries they managed to forage, and, of course, having to wear the same clothes day after day, traveling had to be the most uncomfortable experience Jasmine had ever had. 

          And yet...despite the physical discomfort, Jasmine could not help but be happy. Despite the looming specter of the Shadow Lord's invasion should she fail, there were several upsides to the quest. For one thing, Jasmine was utterly free of the Rule, given how impossible it would be stick to such customs on the road. And for another, Jasmine had never felt more of a sense of purpose than she did now. Back at the palace, she'd been stuck in a combination of duty and fruitlessness-duty to the Rule and a far-off future, and fruitlessness because that future was, or _should_ have been-very far away. 

        But on the road, she had a mystery to solve, and after that, a palace bureaucracy to clean up, and a kingdom to save. The combination of it all terrified her, yet ignited within her a fiery determination to see it through. Not to mention, unlike her palace minders, Lief, despite refusing to address Jasmine as queen,was pleasant, respected her space, and a surprising delight to travel with. If he were her only travel companion, and if Jasmine didn't feel guilty at her mother possibly thinking she'd run off-the physical discomfort would have been nothing.

        Unfortunately, Jasmine did feel guilty, because she hadn't even run away in the first place, and because Lief wasn't her only travel companion. Oh no. Instead, she also had to contend with _Mia_. 

        When Lief had first mentioned his little sister back in Del, Jasmine had painted a mental picture of a sweet, innocent little girl. A picture Mia had seemed to conform to when Jasmine first laid eyes on her, but as Jasmine had discovered on their travels, first impressions often lie. 

        The first night of the journey, when Lief fell asleep after they set up camp, Mia looked Jasmine in the eye and asked in a flat, monotone voice: 

        "Do you plan on having sex with Lief?"

        "W-w- _what_?!" 

        Jasmine, much to Prandine's dismay, was not exactly a virgin. But neither was she reckless about lovemaking either-her few forays into it over the past two years had only been with serious boyfriends, and always with contraceptive herbs on hand. She was certainly not the type to sleep with just _any_ young man, especially if she hadn't known him that long. 

       "Do...you...plan...on...having...sex...with...Lief?" Mia repeated, drawing a knife from her boot and pointing it at Jasmine. 

       "No!" Jasmine cried. "I mean, he's nice and all, but we've only just met!" 

       A creepy smile spread across Mia's face. 

       "Good," she said, as she sheathed the dagger and slid it back into her boot.  "Because otherwise I'd have to kill you." 

       Lief, when informed of this the next day, laughed, 

      "Well, Mia's certainly protective of her big brother, isn't she? Although..." 

      Lief frowned, turned to Mia, and asked, 

      "How do you know what _sex_ is? Just what did Natalia tell you when I wasn't there?"

     "Not much," Mia replied, her eyes big and her voice babyish. "She told me it's what happens when two people love each other very much and want a baby." 

     Lief chuckled and ruffled Mia's hair.

     "Well, neither of us wants a baby right now, sweetie," he assured her. "So there's nothing to worry about." 

     This stark divide between the innocent little girl Mia was with Lief, and the person she was when Lief wasn't looking, only grew over time. 

     In the first village they came upon in their travels, they found themselves greeted by an elderly beggar asking for money. Most ignored him, Lief offered him a single coin, and Mia...well, the moment Lief was out of earshot, she decided to kick the beggar in his privates. Barely an hour after this, Mia successfully wheedled Lief into buying her an apple tart from a baker. 

     A few days after they passed by that village and got back on the road, the trio met up with two fellow travelers: a young woman and her husband. Since they were all headed in the same direction, they decided to team up for the time being. When they broke camp, the husband and Lief went off to refill their water-skins while the young woman cooked dinner. As the young woman was cooking, Jasmine could not help but observe Mia fiddling with a strange vial filled with a disgusting-looking liquid. 

      The very next morning, the young woman and her husband fell deadly ill, and upon finding a doctor in the next town over, the trio ended up having to part ways with the couple. Mia, of course, put up a convincing display of disappointment for Lief. Said display, however, only reinforced Jasmine's suspicions about the girl. 

     Suspicions, which, for Jasmine, presented a horrid dilemma. If she told Lief the truth about Mia, he would surely dismiss it as he had before. And on the off chance he didn't, he would be very hurt-after all, Mia was all the family he had left. But if she let Mia's actions go unchecked, other people would doubtlessly be hurt. 

      It was this very dilemma which Jasmine was pondering when the trio was attacked by the Granuous. 

      Surrounded by six bulky, short, ape-like creatures with pointy yellow teeth and claws, the trio's reactions were exactly what one would expect. Mia, the ten-year-old girl, screamed, Lief immediately moved to protect Mia, and Jasmine cringed while desperately trying to keep her composure. 

      "Ooh, there's three of you," said the head Granous, his beady little eyes staring at them excitedly. "Two peasants-" 

       He glanced over at a whimpering Mia, 

      "And their little sister!" 

      "You won't have her!" Lief cried, his hand flying to the hilt of his sword.

      The head Granous tsked. 

      "Now, that's just rude. There's no need for violence."

       "No need for violence?You're going to _eat us_!" Jasmine cried. 

      "Not if you correctly answer all twenty questions," countered the head Granous. "Do that, and we'll let you go free." 

       Lief raised an eyebrow. 

       "And if we don't?" 

        "Well, for every question you fail to answer, we get to eat one of your delicious, delicious fingers," another Granous in the back replied, salivating as he did. "And when you run out of fingers...we'll start on the toes." 

      "Now, first question,"  the head Granous said. "Truth's cruel counterpart, I destroy friendships and ruin lives. Yet sometimes, I also patch up hurt feelings. What am I? You have twenty seconds to answer." 

      "Umm...what?" Jasmine began, but fortunately, Mia, oddly calm for some reason, cut in with:

     "Lies.  The answer is _lies_." 

      The Granous hissed in rage. 

     "Next question: A bond between two souls, meant to last a lifetime. Sometimes the cruelest of chains, other times the happiest of undertakings. What is it?" 

     "Uh...family?" Lief guessed. 

     "Wrong answer!" the head Granous crowed gleefully, seizing Lief's hand and pulling it towards his mouth.

     "Marriage!" Jasmine cried."The answer is marriage!" 

      The head Granuous dropped Lief's hand and turned towards Jasmine. 

      "You're awfully young to know that," it remarked. 

      "Yeah, well, princesses tend to learn that pretty early in life," Jasmine snapped. "What with all the arranged marriages forced on them." 

      "Oh, so you're a princess, eh?" the head Granous crowed, leering at Jasmine. "We've never eaten a _princess_ before!" 

      "Actually, I'm a _queen_ , not a princess," Jasmine pointed out. 

      "Well, we haven't eaten one of those either," the head Granuous said with a shrug. "Now. Third question. A queen, her sister, and the queen's friend-" 

       But before the head Granous could finish his question, he was unceremoniously shot in the back of the head with a crossbow and collapsed to the ground, dead. Lief, Jasmine, Mia, and the rest of the shocked Granuous immediately turned in the direction of the crossbow bolt, and found a lanky man with a crossbow, with what appeared to be six heavily armed men behind him. 

      "Time to go," one very tall Granuous said, his eyes darting back and forth to his compatriots. None of the other Granuous argued; instead, they all made a beeline for the woods and disappeared. 

      When the last of them were gone, Jasmine sighed with relief and said to the crossbow holder: 

      "So...whom should I be thanking for this timely rescue, exactly?" 

     The man with the crossbow grinned evilly. 

     "Oh, it's not a rescue per se, Your Highness," he replied. "More like a... reallocation of resources, if you get my drift." 

     "That's right," boomed a muscular bald man to the crossbow holder's immediate right. "It'd be a shame to let a queen get eaten by Granuous. We're not ones to let ransom money just...disappear before our very eyes." 

     Jasmine's eyes narrowed. 

     Damn it. First Granuous, now bandits. Just their luck. 

     Lief grabbed Jasmine's arm and began dragging her away. 

    "Well, it was nice meeting you gentlemen, but I'm afraid we must be off," he said nervously. 

    The bandit leader reloaded his crossbow and then pointed it at Jasmine. 

    "You can go anywhere you _want_ , boy," he sneered. "You and the little girl both. But Her Majesty's not going anywhere." 

    A thin man with a blond mustache to the leader's left rolled his eyes. 

    "Oh, and we're trusting the word of a random woman threatened by Granuous now, are we?" the mustachioed bandit snapped. 

    "Well, how many women go about casually saying they're the queen?" the bald bandit retorted. 

    "I agree with Stretch," a short bandit with a bushy beard on the mustachioed bandit's right chimed in. "She looks a bit _young_ to be the queen. And besides, don't queens usually wear silks and jewels and such?" 

    In no mood to be cross-examined by thieving lowlifes, Jasmine fumbled about her waist and began, 

    "If it's jewels you want I've got-" 

    "Well put, my good man," Lief said loudly. "Very well put. I'm afraid my sister has no jewels to show you, though." 

     Stretch scoffed. 

     "What, so you're a little lordling too, is that what you're saying? A likely story." 

     Lief laughed and put his hands up in an appeasing gesture. 

     "Oh, no, my good sirs, I would never try to sell you such a ludicrous story as that," he said. "I'm afraid I'm nothing more than a poor woodcutter's son, and this young lady beside me is my sister."

     "Then why'd she say she was the queen?" the short bandit demanded. 

     "Because she is, the boy is obviously lying!" thundered the bald bandit. 

     "If he's lying, then why is a queen parading about in peasant's clothes with only one man for protection?" Stretch countered, slowly moving in on the bald bandit. 

     "You know, that's a good point, that's a very good point," the bandit leader conceded, lowering his crossbow and pushing the mustachioed bandit aside. "Which we can discuss after we've tied her up." 

     " _After_? _After_?!" cried the short bandit. "I'm not going all the way to the capital with some random minx over my shoulder unless I know she's the real deal!" 

     "Me neither," agreed a tall, thin-haired bandit behind the bald bandit. "I'm not going to the capital unless I get paid." 

     "Now, now, boys, I'm sure she's the real deal," the bandit leader assured them, raising his hands in an appeasing gesture. Unfortunately, in doing so, he accidentally triggered the crossbow, causing it to dump its load straight into the bandit's chest. 

    "You killed Lumpy!" cried the short bandit. 

     "Now, now, gentlemen, it was an accident..." the bandit leader began, but it was too late. The rest of the bandits had already ganged up on him, and even if he had survived the ensuing fight, Jasmine, Mia, and Lief had already escaped by the time it was over. 

 

     "That was clever of you back there, causing them to argue," Jasmine said to Lief after they'd gotten away from the bandits. 

     Lief shrugged. 

     "The fuel for the fire was already there," he said. "Speaking of which...I think Terence was right. The road really is no place for Mia. I mean, first Granuous, then bandits?" 

     "Well, we can't head back to Del _now_ ," Jasmine grumbled. "We're already in Diamond territory; Del is miles and miles away." 

     "I know," Lief replied. "But it's still not safe for Mia." 

      Mia grabbed Lief's arm and said,

      "I don't want to go back to Del."

     "Nobody is saying you will, sweetie," Lief replied. "We're just...we're just trying to find a safe place for you. Away from nasty bandits and monsters." 

     Given what Jasmine had observed of her in the last few days, Mia was as much a danger to other people _as_ bandits and monsters were.

     Unfortunately, there was no safe place to dump Mia nearby. There was, however, a sign saying "Stony Creek" and a village just beyond that sign. 

     "I am too tired to have this discussion right now," Jasmine said, pointing to the sign. "Let's just stop in that village over there for the night and decide what to do in the morning." 

     Lief glanced at the sign and then turned to Jasmine, his face lit up with delight. 

     "Well, there's our answer!" he cried. "Stony Creek. This is where our Aunt Anna lives!"

      "Aunt...Anna? But I thought Barda was your only family left! Jasmine cried. 

     "He is," Lief explained. "Well, he's our only living blood family. But before our grandparents got married, our grandfather had another wife, who died giving birth to our Aunt Anna. Which...makes Aunt Anna our father's...stepsister, I believe."

     "Half-sister," Mia corrected.

     Lief shot Mia a look. 

     "No, _steps_ ister," he said. "Min said Aunt Anna is father's _stepsister_." 

     Lief turned back to Jasmine. 

     "Anyway, at some point after Mother got pregnant with me, a traveling Jalis merchant named came into Del to sell his wares, and Aunt Anna fell in love with him. They got married, and she went with him to his home village, of, wouldn't you know it, Stony Creek!" 

     "But...then why did you ask _Barda_ of all people to help you?" Jasmine asked, thoroughly confused. "Why didn't you just make the journey here, then?"

     "Because Stony Creek is all the way out in the Diamond territory, and several miles from Del," Lief chuckled. "And we barely had the money to feed ourselves, let alone money for a caravan."

      "And I never wanted to go live with an aunt I've never met in the first place," Mia added with a pout. "And I certainly don't want to NOW!" 

      "Sweetie," Lief said, kneeling down and putting his hands on her shoulders. "The road is too dangerous for you. We just escaped being eaten by monsters and kidnapping from bandits back-to-back. Do you honestly think we could do that a second time?"

    "No, but-"

    "It will only be for a little while," Lief assured her. 

     "That's assuming this mysterious aunt of yours will even _take_ her," Jasmine pointed out. "For all we know, she could have a dozen kids already." 

    Lief shrugged. 

    "Yes, but we have to try," he said. "I'm not risking Mia's safety again." 

     And with that, they walked into the village, which was a surprisingly lively place, albeit much smaller than Del, and did not appear to be any better off. True to its name, there was a creek nearby, but it did not appear to have many stones in it. 

      "Excuse me," Lief asked an elderly woman waiting to purchase food from a farmer. "But...would you happen to know where Anna and her husband-I believe his name was _Ban-_ live?"

      "Anna and _Ban_?" the elderly woman said, clearly confused. "As in, the _headman_ Ban? Are you here on behalf of the people in Jaliad?" 

      "The headman?" Lief exclaimed. "Well-he's certainly moved up in the world since _we_ last heard of him!" 

      "Since _you_ last heard of him? Well, whoever you are, he's certainly not been in much contact with you-Ban's been our village headman for the last thirteen years now."

      "The last thirteen-well, I expect a lot's happened to our aunt and uncle since they last left Del!" 

      The elderly woman's eyes widened. 

       "Uncle? Ban is...your _uncle_?" 

       "Yes," Lief told her. "By way of marriage to our aunt Anna."

       "Ahh," the old woman said. "I see. Well, then, I will happily take you to them! Come with me, children." 

        After barking some orders at a random woman to buy the food in her stead, the old woman led the trio to a large house made of lovely gray stone. Inside, they found a sweet-faced  woman with vivid green eyes sewing by the hearth. She was dressed in a dress made of rich brown wool, and wore a silver locket around her neck. 

      "Your nieces and nephew, Mistress Anna," the elderly woman said with a small curtsy. 

       Anna looked up from her sewing at the old woman, confused. 

      "Niec _es_? But last my brother wrote, I only had _one_ niece, and two nephews," she said. "Surely...surely there's some mistake." 

      The elderly woman paled. 

      "You-you mean, I-" 

      "You may go, Hilda," Anna said. "I will sort this out myself." 

      Hilda made another small curtsy and exited the room. Once she was gone, the woman eyed the trio carefully. 

      "You look very much like my brother," Anna said, pointing to Lief. She then pointed to Mia and added, 

      "And so do you, but..." 

      Anna  pointed to Jasmine. 

     " _You_ are not Jarred's child. You look nothing like him." 

     "That's because I'm the _queen_ ," Jasmine replied, revealing the Belt from underneath her dress. "Queen Jasmine, daughter of the late King Endon, who was son of King Alton, and also, completely unrelated to your brother.  " 

      The woman immediately stood up and delved into a deep curtsy. 

      "Your...Your Majesty!" she cried. "I was not aware I was expecting such...august company." 

      "Well, I wasn't expecting to meet you either," Jasmine replied. "This whole thing was your nephew Lief's idea."

      "Lief," Anna said, getting up from her curtsy and pointing to Lief. "That must be you. And the girl must be Mia. But...where's Roland?" 

     Lief looked down at the floor. 

    "I'm afraid he's dead, Aunt Anna." 

    "Dead?" Anna gasped. "But...but why? How?" 

    "It's a long story," Lief said, tears forming in his eyes.

    "Well, tell me. I want to know." 

    And so Lief told her, half sobbing as he did, the story of how Roland had died at the hands of Natalia Stregazza, how he and his siblings been orphaned three years ago when the forge burned down, and how, because Barda had refused to help them, they'd been forced to work for the Stregazza crime family. 

     "And now I'm here," Lief finished. "Accompanying the queen on an important mission to save Deltora, hoping that you'll look after Mia until we get back." 

     "But of course we will," Anna assured him, throwing an arm around Lief's shoulders. "It's the least we could do after all you two have been through."  

     "Thank you, Auntie." 

      "Think nothing of it." 

    

       A request which, while easy for Anna, Ban, and their seven daughters to fulfill, was not so easy for Lief to fulfill, and was especially draining on Jasmine. For while Anna and Ban focused on being excellent hosts to Lief and Mia, as well as peppering them with questions, and the daughters focused on fixing Jasmine's hair and giving her new clothes that were more befitting of her status, Jasmine had other concerns. 

        Namely, how Mia would act with no Lief to restrain her actions. Would these kinsmen Mia had never met provide enough motivation to not act cruel? Or, more likely, would no longer constantly being in Lief's company cause Mia to unleash what little restrictions she had on her dark impulses?

       Fortunately, Mia had yet to anything even slightly wicked since entering Anna's house, even when Lief was out of sight. But that meant nothing-this was, after all, a little girl who had threatened Jasmine with a _knife_ and possibly _poisoned_ two strangers.

      Yet she had acted relatively scared when the Granous showed up. But then again, Lief had been present  when that happened. Maybe if the Granuous had attacked when Lief was absent, perhaps Mia would simply have let them eat Jasmine and laughed her head off. 

       Dinner arrived, and with it, nighttime. Jasmine and Lief were given separate rooms, but Mia, much to Jasmine's dismay, was sent to sleep with the youngest of Anna and Ban's daughters.  But when the morning that followed revealed said youngest daughters, alongside everyone else, alive and in one piece, it quieted Jasmine's fears a little. 

      _She didn't kill anyone_ , Jasmine thought to herself as she loaded their supplies into the cart Anna and Ban had loaned them, _Or hurt anyone. Even when totally alone_. 

       Hardly had Jasmine thought this when suddenly Mia appeared to give her a hug. 

      "I hope you have a safe trip, Your Majesty," Mia said. "Bring Lief back soon, you hear?" 

      "Aww, are you worried for us?" Jasmine asked her. 

      Mia nodded. 

      "Don't worry," Jasmine assured, feeling for the first time a touch of concern for the girl. "We'll be back soon." 

      "Alright then. Goodbye, Your Majesty."

      "Goodbye."

      And with that, Mia seperated herself from Jasmine and disappeared into Anna's house.

        _And she was nice to me just now. Even though Lief wasn't around. Not only that, she expressed concern for people who weren't herself. Maybe the violence is just the result of being raised by a crime lord too long. Maybe there is hope after all._

    With that, she and Lief got in the cart and proceeded to ride further, Lief secure in the knowledge that Mia would be cared for, and Jasmine beginning to have hope that perhaps Mia was capable of genuine goodness. 

      A _wrongful_ hope. 

     For when night fell and everyone went to sleep, Mia smiled, got dressed, unsheathed her secret knife, and calmly slit the throats of all the little girls she was currently sharing a room with. She then tiptoed out of her room and went down to the bedroom of the middle daughters. Once there, she then slit their throats as well, calmly wiped her knife on a blanket, and moved on to the eldest daughters' room, where she repeated herself once again. 

      With all of Lief's cousins dead, Mia smiled to herself as she walked on towards her final targets: Anna and Ban themselves.

    Once there, she slit the throats of her kindly aunt and uncle, then cleaned and sheathed her blade, having accomplished the foul deed she'd set out to do. Now that they were out of the way, all she needed was to catch up to Lief and Jasmine, and everything would be golden. 

     Or, as it would turn out, not so much. For Hilda, roused by the need to pee, caught sight of the blood-covered little girl running through the house, and began to follow her in a desperate attempt to catch her. 

      Hilda would not, unfortunately, succeed, but her efforts, noisy and not at all concerned with subtlety, would rouse enough of the village to let them know of what was happening. And to give plenty of witnesses to Mia's escape. 

      An escape which, desperate to alert Anna and Ban to, would cause Hilda to discover the bodies, much to her and everyone else's horror. 

     But the middle of the night is hardly the best time for solving murders, and thus everyone in Stony Creek collectively agreed to go back to bed and deal with the issue in the morning. 

      Which was exactly when Barda, of all people, came riding into town, much confused by all the panic and shouting over it all. 

      "Calm down!" Barda roared. "Tell me, plain and simple, what happened? Who was murdered, exactly?" 

      This silenced the crowd enough for Hilda to explain: 

      "Our village headman and his family. They were murdered by his niece last night." 

      "And...do you have any idea where this niece might be?" Barda asked sternly, in full guardsman mode. 

      Hilda shook her head. 

      "No," she said. "The girl ran off in the middle of the night."

      "Do you have any idea _why_ she did this?" 

      Hilda shook her head. 

      "No. She was only ten years old, and she was brought here by her older brother and the queen to-" 

       Barda's eyes widened. 

       "The _queen_ , you say? Are you telling me the _queen_ was here? " 

       Hilda nodded. 

       "Yes. She was here, alongside the little girl's brother, to leave the child with our village headman. They left yesterday morning, to continue on to Tora."

      Barda scowled. 

      "So...Mia's not as innocent as we all thought," he muttered. "Turns out she's a stone-cold killer. And she's on the loose and there's absolutely no sign of her. That's not good." 

      "Well," a helpful farmer pointed out, "Mia was heading westward when she escaped. In the same direction Her Majesty was going, actually." 

       Barda sighed. 

      "Ancestors help us," he said. "That's even worse." 

      "You... _know_ these people," Hilda cried, her face stricken with shock and horror.

       Barda shook his head. 

       "Not as well as I'd like," he admitted. " I know the queen pretty well, given that I'm a guardsman, but the other two...while they might be family, up until recently I barely believed they existed. And I'm afraid it's because of that that you're in this predicament."  

    Barda glanced at the crowd, and said, 

    "I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I promise that I will do my best to fix this." 

    And with that, he leaped back onto his horse, determined to find Jasmine, apologize to Lief, and stop Mia from wreaking any more havoc. 

 

   

   

      


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sharn does not fuck around.

      Meanwhile, at the palace, Sharn was ready to cause a great deal of havoc.

     "WHERE...IS...MY... _DAUGHTER_?" she roared, bursting through the doors into Prandine's office.

     "Your Highness," Prandine said smugly, not even looking up from his papers. "You are not the reigning monarch. You have no authority to be here whatsoever."

     "My _husband_ ," Sharn snarled. "Is _dead_. My daughter is nowhere to be found. And until we find her, there _is_ no reigning monarch. And without a monarch to advise, _you_ have no authority _whatsoever_." 

      Prandine chuckled and put down his paper.

     "Oh, you sweet, naive little fool...is that how you think things really are?"

     "No," Sharn replied. "I know you little bastards have been abusing monarchical authority since ancient times. But it sure as hell is how things ought to be." 

     With that, Sharn turned on her heels. Just as she was about to leave, however, Prandine suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, so sharp he almost collapsed in his chair. Then his throat immediately began burning up, bile slowly rising as he began to heave, desperate to get it out of his system. 

      "Ah," Sharn mused, turning back to look at Prandine. "I see the death cap mushrooms have kicked in." 

      Prandine stared at her, wide-eyed. 

      "What-"

      "I read my daughter's notes," Sharn confessed. "And my husband's, too. And so I put together that he knew something you didn't want him to, and so you poisoned him with death cap mushrooms to keep him quiet. Now, since you are willing to poison your own king, I figured blackmail might not be enough to get what I want. So instead I decided I'd give you a taste of your own medicine." 

      Sharn looked at Prandine dispassionately as he vomited onto the floor. 

      "I do, of course, have the antidote ready," she added, pulling a small vial from her dress. "But I'll only give it to you if you agree to give me what I want." 

      "Which is?" Prandine croaked. 

      "One, you make your number one priority finding my daughter, finding the Belt, and apprehending whoever's responsible for the disappearance of both," Sharn began. "Two, you instate me as Queen Regent until my daughter is found, and transfer all of your unofficial governing duties to me." 

      Prandine once again hurled out his guts, and then choked out, 

      "A-absurd!" 

      "Refuse, and I will have the guards cast you into the dungeons where you can live out the one week you have left in utter misery," Sharn continued, staring down at him coldly. "That is, if I don't decide I'd rather slit your throat now and have done with it. You can either work with me or die." 

     Well. This was quite the problem. If he said no, death would be imminent, and Sharn would have all the power. Granted, she might not able to use the Belt, but that hardly mattered. Sharn would put up one hell of a fight against the Shadow Lord regardless. Who knew-perhaps she might invent something WORSE than the Belt.

      But, if he agreed to her terms...he might be able to manipulate her into doing what he wanted. 

     "Fine," he croaked, "You win. Just...give me the antidote, please." 

    Sharn smiled. 

    "I thought you'd see things my way." 

* * *

* * *

         It had been tough leaving Mia behind. But it was for her own good, and besides, she was finally safe, with family. No more worrying about what Natalia would do to her, or whether she'd be killed on the road. 

       No, Lief could be sure that his little sister would be safe and happy, cared for by people who loved her. And besides, the seperation wouldn't be that long. Once he got Her Majesty to Tora, and once the Torans gave Jasmine her answers, Lief could go back and collect Mia. 

       And then what? He might be free of his debt to the Stregazzas, but he still had no money and no home to speak of. Perhaps he could live with Uncle Ban. No, he could never impose on the man like that. 

      Perhaps he could agree to take Terence back. Yes. That might work. Terence would definitely provide for Mia. But that was assuming Terence survived, and that Jasmine didn't immediately begin a crackdown on all the crime families once she got the Belt to shine. 

* * *

* * *

         From what Barda could tell, Mia had yet to reach Lief and Jasmine. Which was good. However, he had yet to either. 

      


End file.
